The Bundaberg-based RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter crew has winched a man from a small vessel off K’gari (Fraser Island), after he suffered a serious medical episode while sailing.
The rescue chopper crew was called to help the boatie, just after 9am.
The RACQ LifeFlight Rescue pilot located the sailing yacht, with two people and a dog on board, off the western shore of K’gari (Fraser Island).
The rescue crewman was winched down into the water.
He then climbed on board the vessel, where he found the man, aged in his 50s, suffering serious chest pain and losing consciousness.
It was decided the safest operational option was to move the patient to the yacht’s tender, position it away from the main vessel, then hoist both the crewman and the patient into the helicopter.
The LifeFlight Queensland Ambulance Service Flight Paramedic was then able to treat the man on board the helicopter.
He was flown to Hervey Bay Hospital in a stable condition.
Volunteer Marine Rescue then recovered the yacht and helped bring it, the man’s wife and their pet to safety.
